Keelan Joshua
On Wednesday the City’s Full Council meeting was disrupted after a disagreement over the correct procedure for submitting the City’s draft budget. In a query after Mayor of Cape Town Patricia De Lille’s speech, ANC councillor Xolani Sotashe questioned the process of handing over the draft budget after the Mayor’s speech.
He continued by saying that according to legislature, budgets are supposed to be submitted 72 hours before council meetings and that failure to adhere to this means that the council would not have the necessary
The ANC and DA were in disagreement over the interpretation
of the legislation causing the meeting to adjourn for an hour during which time
ANC councilors chanted and threw the proposed budgets on the floor. Speaker of
the council, Derrick Smith, decided in favour of the DA after legal
consultation.
After the meeting restarted the DA proceeded to pick up the
discarded budget proposals with councilor GG Twigg insisting that they would
not be intimidated by the ANC.
The ANC
did not accept the ruling and stated that they would take the matter further.
Councilor Sotashe reiterated saying, “the rules are very clear that you must
provide councilors with sufficient info rmation before
they apply their minds. Here the speaker wants us to take a decision when we
don’t have the documents.”
Mayor De
Lille replied saying that whatever decisions the ANC are unhappy with, they
should take the correct channels in addressing the matter and not disrupt
council meetings. Speaker Derrick Smith closed discussion of the draft budget
proposal thereafter and the meeting continued.
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